


Life is Like a Song

by Holz9364



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Brother/Brother Incest, F/M, M/M, Multi, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 22:41:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29497464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Holz9364/pseuds/Holz9364
Summary: Compilation of oneshots all based on songs - not all song!fics in the sense that they don't just follow the lyrics blindly, they were each inspired by a song though :) I have loads of ideas for this, so I'll add to it every so often when I need a break from writing something else.READ THE TAGS PLS (relationships in brackets after chapter title!)Rated M, just in case.
Relationships: Bill Weasley/Charlie Weasley, Daphne Greengrass/Neville Longbottom, Hermione Granger/Charlie Weasley, Neville Longbottom/Harry Potter
Kudos: 12





	1. Another Man's Gold (Neville x Daphne)

**Author's Note:**

> This one is based on the song:  
> Another Man’s Gold by Dean Brody.

Neville had always been able to make the best of things. He had been that way since he was a child because he hadn’t had much of a choice.

His grandmother had always done the best for him, but they didn’t have much money. He supposed that, in another life, they would have done well. But his parents care at St. Mungos cost a lot of money, and it all came out of the vault in Gringotts.

His grandmother loved him, but she couldn’t work, so she made ends meet by doing little jobs for people in the village. She would iron clothes, sow badges on for the kids at the local church and bake birthday cakes for the neighbours.

It was for this reason that Neville didn’t get new things very often. His cauldron was an old one of his grandmother’s, and his wand had been his father’s.

And if he was honest, Neville didn’t mind much until he went to Hogwarts. He didn’t get teased for having hand-me-downs as much as Ron did, but it was apparent that most of his things were second hand.

The Slytherins were the worst because they were raised with a silver spoon in their mouths. Neville hated the likes of Malfoy who had a new broomstick, fresh robes and got everything under the sun.

He tried not to tar all of the Slytherins with the same brush, but it wasn't easy. Until that was, he bumped into a tearful girl in the dungeons one evening during his sixth year.

“Sorry,” Neville said sheepishly when he saw the girl in the alcove.

She shoved her hair aside and looked up, “What are you doing lurking around here, Longbottom?” she asked coolly.

“I wasn’t lurking,” Neville said, his cheeks colouring, “I was sneaking down to the kitchens.”

Her eyes softened a little – they were light blue and currently, red and bloodshot.

“You’ve had a bad week too then?”

Neville shrugged and hovered in the entrance of the alcove, “I’ve had a bad year. Are you okay?”

She nodded and wiped her eyes, murmuring a glamour charm and fixing her hair. Neville smiled – he didn’t know why she bothered, she was still beautiful, even with tear-stained cheeks.

“Daphne, isn’t it?” Neville asked, watching her fix her ice-blonde hair.

She nodded and looked up at him, “Daphne Greengrass, we don’t talk much. Do we?”

Neville shook his head, “No, well – you’re friends with Malfoy, and I’m friends with Harry so…”

“Yeah,” Daphne agreed, “That does sort of put us on opposite sides, I suppose.”

Neville stood awkwardly, unsure what to say, “Did you lose someone?” he asked, his eyes falling on the letter in her hands.

Daphne cleared her throat and nodded, “My uncle. I know it seems stupid to get upset about that when people like Susan are losing their sole guardian,” she shook her head, “And I wasn’t even that close to him but it…honestly, it scared me.”

“It’s not stupid,” Neville said, sitting down opposite her in the small space, “My parents are gone so trust me, I get it.”

“I’m sorry, about what happened to them,” Daphne said, looking up and meeting his eye.

“Yeah,” Neville said, a little bitterly, “Everyone is.”

Daphne bit her lip and looked at him for a long moment, “Is it true? What the likes of Draco are saying? That there will be a war soon?”

“I think the war is already here,” Neville confessed, looking up at her apologetically.

Daphne sighed, “Well, I suppose if there is, my family will go into hiding like they did last time.”

“I’ll fight,” Neville said, determination glinting in his eyes.

Daphne smiled slightly, “Of course you will. That’s the Gryffindor thing to do. You run in blindly and save the day.”

Neville sighed and shook his head, “Harry runs in blindly and saves the day. We aren’t all as brave as him, even now that I do have a wand that works.”

“What was wrong with your last one?” Daphne asked curiously.

“Oh, it was my dad’s old wand, and it didn’t work that great for me,” Neville shrugged. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a bar of Honeydukes chocolate, “Do you want some?”

Daphne smiled, “You’re sweet.”

Neville’s cheeks flushed, “I was just…sorry, uh…nice, I was trying to be nice to you because you were upset.”

Daphne took the piece of chocolate from him and chuckled, “I know. You’re just different, Longbottom. You aren’t arrogant like the other Gryffindors, and you aren’t full of yourself like most of the Slytherins I know.”

“Well, I don’t like most of them,” Neville admitted, “I don’t have much time for spoiled little brats like Malfoy.”

Daphne frowned and looked down at the ground, “He doesn’t have a perfect life like you guys all think he does, you know? It’s not my place to tell you his life story but…well, sometimes one man’s rubbish is another man’s gold you know?”

Neville frowned at the blonde girl, “What do you mean?”

“It was just something my grandfather used to say,” Daphne admitted with a fond smile.

Neville offered her another square of chocolate.

Daphne took it gratefully, “My grandfather used to say that you should never be ashamed to take something second hand. He said that one man's rubbish could be another man's gold. Like that old wand, you know? Maybe to you it was rubbish, and you hated it, but to someone like Potter? I bet he would love to have an old wand of his fathers so that he had something of his.”

Neville nodded and smiled over at her, “That’s thoughtful of you.”

Daphne shrugged and smiled too, “Not all Slytherins are the same. Don’t tar us all with the same brush.”

“I won’t,” Neville promised.

Daphne pushed herself to her feet, and Neville handed her the rest of the Honeydukes bar, “Here, you need this more than me.”

Daphne smiled at him again, “Thanks, Neville.”

Neville’s smile widened at her use of his first name, “See you around, Daphne,” he said as he slipped out of the alcove.

* * *

“Nev! Supplies?”

“Sorry, Daph,” Neville called. He dove into a trunk and dashed over to her with medical supplies, “Is it bad?”

“No, Seamus just blew something up again,” Daphne said, shooting an amused smirk at the Irish boy.

Neville snorted and sat down by her side as she began to patch him up, “Thanks for helping us out in here Daphne. Without you and Hannah healing everyone, I hate to think what state we’d be in.”

Daphne smiled at him, “It helps me too Neville. I like to feel useful.”

“Got another one over here, Han!”

Neville glanced over as an injured boy was dragged into the Room of Requirement. Hannah ran over and immediately began to heal him.

“Broken leg, the Carrows knocked him off when they caught him stealing supplies.”

Neville turned around and sighed, “I still hate flying.”

“Yeah?” Daphne mused, “How come you hate it so much?”

“I’m just no good at it, I guess,” Neville shrugged, “My grandmother made my first broom because she couldn’t afford to buy me one. She got this old shooting star, she worked on it for weeks before my birthday, but it was temperamental from being tinkered with. It threw me off all of the time, and I guess it made me wary.”

“There’s no shame in that,” Daphne said, smiling at her friend.

Neville smiled back at her.

“Nev! The Carrows have got Susan!”

Neville picked his wand up and dashed away from Daphne, “I’m on my way!”

* * *

Neville still worried when someone knocked on his door late at night or when the floo roared. It had been less than a year since the end of the war, and he was still more paranoid than he liked to admit.

So when banging woke him up after midnight, he ran to the door in his boxers and pried it open.

“Daphne!”

“I’m sorry,” Daphne said tearfully, “But can I come in?”

“Yeah, it’s freezing out there,” Neville said as he pushed the door shut behind her, the wind was howling, and sleet was coming down sideways.

He grabbed a dressing gown from the back of his bedroom door and threw it on. Then he surveyed his friend, her hair was wet, and her eyes were bloodshot.

“What’s happened?” He asked anxiously, “Is your sister okay?”

“She’s fine, it’s not that,” Daphne said with a wave of her hand, “It’s Theo. He…he left me.”

Neville’s eyes softened. “Oh…well…you were better than him Daphne, I told you that.”

“I know you did,” Daphne said tearfully. She sank into an armchair in Neville’s living room, “But it’s more complicated than that Nev.”

Neville knelt in front of her, “How come?”

“I’m pregnant Neville,” Daphne said, her eyes meeting his, “And he…he said he was too young. He said he wasn’t ready and…he said that if I keep the baby, he’s good as gone.”

Neville’s eyes darkened, “Then let him be gone. You don’t want a waste of space like that raising your baby with you, do you?”

“But I can’t do it on my own!” Daphne despaired.

“You’re not on your own,” Neville promised, gripping her hand, “You have me, you have Draco, you have your sister. You’re not alone Daphne.”

Daphne burst into tears and threw herself into his arms.

Neville sighed and held her tightly, “You’re not alone,” he promised softly.

* * *

“Hey,” Neville said when Daphne woke up in a dark, quiet hospital room.

“Hey,” Daphne said with a tired smile.

“You did great.”

“Did I? I don’t remember most of it,” Daphne said, turning her head to look at the baby in the cot next to her bed.

“You were pretty drugged up,” Neville chuckled.

Daphne didn’t say anything as she looked at the sleeping baby.

Neville followed her line of sight, “So a little girl, huh?”

“Yeah,” Daphne said softly, “Do you know what I want to name her?”

“Just promise me you won’t go with Draco’s suggestion of Cassiopeia,” Neville joked as his eyes remained fixed on that little girl.

“No,” Daphne said with a smile, “I want something shorter than that, and more simple. I want to name her Alice…Alice Astoria Greengrass.”

“Alice?” Neville asked, looking up at her with unshed tears in his eyes, “Why?”

“Because I like the name,” Daphne said, shuffling to sit up in her bed, “And because I owe it to you, Neville. You didn’t create her, but you’ve been here every second of the way. You were the one who held my hair through the morning sickness and my hand through the birth. I know you aren’t her father but I kind of hope that you can be her dad.”

Neville cleared his throat and leant forward to kiss her, “Your grandfather has never been more right, you know?”

Daphne kissed him gently, “About what?”

“One man’s rubbish is another man’s gold,” Neville said softly. He took her hand and looked down at the baby in the cot, “You told Theo that you were pregnant and he saw his life slipping away from him if he stuck around to be that baby’s father, but I look at her and I just…”

Neville smiled tearfully at Daphne, “He didn’t care about her, but she’s my gold.”

Daphne smiled tearfully back and kissed him once more.

* * *

“Daddy! Tell me the one about the hairy heart!”

Daphne smiled from the doorway.

“Oh no, Alice, that one is far too scary,” Neville said as he sat on the edge of her bed, “You’ll have nightmares.”

“But I like it!”

“Daddy is right, it’s too scary,” Daphne said, swooping into the room to sit on the other side of the little girl's bed.

“How about the hopping pot?” Neville asked, flipping open the book.

“Okay,” Alice said, yawning as she pulled her blanket closer.

Neville began to read the story and Alice fell asleep in next to no time. Neville smiled over at Daphne as they carefully extracted themselves from her bed and tiptoed out of the bedroom.

“Come on, if you’re quick you won’t miss the sunset,” Daphne said.

He followed her through the house to the porch, which looked out onto a vast lake with mountains in the distance.

Neville wrapped his arms around her as he watched the pink sunset glowing above the lake. This house was a Herbologists dream.

“I love you,” Neville murmured, kissing the side of her neck.

Daphne smiled and leant back into his embrace, “I love you too.”

Neville smiled as he looked out at the sunset and thought back to that old story that Daphne had told him about her grandfather. He couldn’t believe what Theo had thrown away because when he held his wife and their daughter, he felt like his arms were full of gold.

What Theo had thrown away all of those years ago meant everything to Neville, and his two girls made this house on the hill a home to be proud of.

*** ~ The End ~ ***


	2. How to Save a Life (Neville x Harry)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by the song:   
> How to Save a Life by The Fray

“Seven billion people in the world and _you’re_ overreacting because we killed one man,” Neville said as he and Harry sat in the nook of a tree in the Burrow. They were hiding from the hustle and bustle that was their joint 18th birthday party.

“But-” Harry began to object.

Neville cut in, “Seven. Billion. People,” he said slowly.

“Now, quit complaining and drink your smoothie.”

Harry sighed and looked down at his untouched banana smoothie.

“You can’t even call him a man,” Neville added, “Because he wasn’t one. He was barely even human when we finished him off.”

“That’s not the point,” Harry said quietly, “I killed him, and that means I’m capable of murder. If I can do it once, what’s to say I can’t do it again?”

“If you become an Auror, the chances are you probably will do it again,” Neville said honestly, “Whether it’s an accident or whether it’s to protect innocent people. I knew when I killed the snake that I was making him mortal for you to kill and you knew when you got into that duel with him that it had to end in his death or your own. It was-”

“If one more person tells me it was self-defence, I’m going to lose my temper!” Harry snapped.

Neville was unphased by this, “Well, it _was_ ,” he said, and he sipped his smoothie.

Harry’s was still untouched; he looked into the depths of it and said, “I feel different, Neville.”

“Of course you do,” Neville said, placing a hand on Harry’s shoulder, “You saw some horrible things, things that will change a man. Things won’t go back to normal overnight, Harry. You’ll have to work to overcome everything that’s happened to you.”

Harry frowned, “Like you did, you mean?”

Neville looked up in surprise, “Me?”

“Well that’s why you changed so much during the war,” Harry said, “You spent your whole life trying to overcome what had happened to you, to your parents. Then the war helped you find yourself.”

“I suppose so,” Neville mused, “Don’t you feel like you’ve found yourself?”

Harry shook his head, “Hogwarts helped me find myself. I felt like I belonged somewhere, and I felt happy and safe for a little while. The war…it made me lose myself.”

Neville nodded sadly, “I can understand that.”

Harry sighed and caught his friends eye, “So how do I fix it?”

“You push past it and get on with your life,” Neville said, “You come to terms with the fact that you killed one man to save hundreds of lives. Apply for Auror training. Find something that makes you happy or _someone_ who makes you happy."

Harry smiled slightly and looked up at his friend, “Being around you makes me happy.”

“Well, I'm not going anywhere," Neville promised as he sipped his smoothie.

Harry gave Neville an appreciative nod and pushed himself to his feet, “It’s time to get our lives back on track, isn’t it?”

Neville smiled, “Yeah, it is. Now, are you going to drink that smoothie or not?”

Harry laughed and sipped his smoothie as Neville guided him back towards the party.

**THE END.**


	3. Brothers (Charlie x Bill)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SIBLING - BROTHER/BROTHER INCEST 
> 
> Skip this one if that's not your cup of tea.
> 
> Inspired by the song:  
> Brothers by Dean Brody.

I had many brothers, but I was closer to one than I was to the others. I never really understood why. I supposed it was because I remembered a time when Bill was my _only_ brother before the rest of them came along.

Like every other Weasley man, I loved Ginny, of course, because she was my only sister amongst my many brothers.

But with Bill and I, things were different. We were as thick as thieves as kids and even at Hogwarts, despite being two years apart, we were both Gryffindors, and we were both on the Quidditch team from my second year until the year he left.

It all changed when Egypt stopped being an idea, a dream of Bill’s and became a reality. At first, we made the most of the summer after he graduated from Hogwarts, but in the final days before his departure, I avoided him because I didn’t know how to say what I needed to say to him. I didn’t trust myself to talk to him without breaking down in tears and begging him not to go, which would not be becoming of a teenage boy.

I can still remember the day he left vividly. The house was like a tomb.

With so many young kids around, the Burrow was the loudest place you could encounter in the summer holidays. But on that dreary August day, it was silent.

I had stayed up all night, listening to Mum crying and Dad telling her that it was just a yearlong placement, that he wouldn’t be gone forever. But I think Mum knew what I also knew; this was Bill’s dream, he would never be happy with a year of adventure and then a return to normalcy. I was sure that Bill had been awake to hear it too, but because I had been ignoring him for the past week, he lay in his bed silently, and I lay in mine, not saying a word to each other.

I felt somehow, like he was betraying me by running off to find adventure and leaving me there, which made no sense because I still had two years of school to finish anyway so I would only see him in the holidays regardless.

Either way, that morning, I hid in my room while everyone said goodbye to Bill. Percy’s goodbye was formal because that was just how Percy was. At 13, he was the most sombre teenager I had ever met. Bill and I had joked when he was sorted into Gryffindor that bravery had to be hidden skin deep sometimes, very deep. We had been sure that he was headed for Ravenclaw.

Fred and George, our twin brothers, were about to go into their first year at Hogwarts and they considered themselves something of a prankster duo. They tried to play a trick on Bill, but he foiled them before whatever it was could take off. After all, Bill and I had taught the twins everything that they knew.

Ron sniffled and said goodbye; he was a bit of an emotional wreck at the best of times, and at only eight years old, he could be forgiven for crying.

Ginny full on broke down into tears and begged Bill not to leave, which was exactly what I wanted to do.

“Right then, I had better get going. I need to be at the international apparition centre at 9 am.”

“What about Charlie? He hasn’t said goodbye.”

There was a sigh and then, “He won’t say goodbye, Mum. He’s angry at me for leaving, and you know how Char is, probably best if he doesn’t come out. He’ll either get upset or swing at me.”

He had been right then like he always had been since. Something tugged at me; something told me I couldn’t let him go without saying goodbye, but it wasn’t strong enough to pull me towards the bedroom door. I did get to my feet and peer through my bedroom window as he walked out of the backdoor and began to head down the path for the gate.

I knew once he got there, he would step out of the boundaries of the house, turn on his heel and be gone, for Merlin knew how long, and it was that thought that had me sprinting out of the room, dashing through the hall and bursting out of the backdoor.

“Bill!”

He stopped in his tracks and turned around, smiling at me with that goofy grin of his.

“Char,” He said, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall, “You did decide to see me off in the end.”

I crossed the garden and lowered my voice so that the others couldn’t hear me, “No, I didn’t, you need to come back, do you hear me?”

Bill’s face fell, “Come on Charlie, not this again-”

“No, Bill,” I said. I wanted it to come out as firm and strong, but my voice shook, “I’ll do anything you want. You can have the room to yourself, I know you’re always banging on about personal space so I can sleep in the lounge, I don’t care.”

Bill smiled softly, but I didn’t let him get a word in edgeways, “I’ll clean your room, I’ll polish your broom, I’ll do all your chores. I’ll do anything as long as you don’t go.”

Bill shook his head at me and put his hand on my shoulder, “But I’ve got to go Char. Things are happening out there, big things, a war is coming, and if I don’t go and do my duty, then I’m not protecting you from that, am I?”

“You don’t need to protect me from anything,” I said, shamefully I have to admit that it was said tearfully.

“I do though,” Bill said, squeezing my shoulder, “Because that’s what brothers are for.”

I was then, but I am not ashamed now, as a grown man, to admit that I spent the rest of that day hiding from my father in the woods outside our house, crying my eyes out. But it didn’t change things, Bill was still gone, and I still had to go back to school without him that year.

Everyone close to me could see that I had changed, but nobody commented on it probably because they couldn’t understand why. After all, it was weird to be so close to your brother that you had to teach yourself how to function without him.

I kept myself to myself that year, focused on studying, trying to work out what the hell I wanted to do with my life. I found a friend in Hagrid because people judge, but magical creatures don’t. They don’t care if you’re sad because you’re being bullied or if you’re sad because you miss your brother, they just know that you’re sad and if you treat them right, they want to try to make you feel better.

I kept in contact with Bill obviously, it wasn’t like he had disappeared off of the face of the earth, he had just moved to the other side of it.

We wrote to each other all the time, but we didn’t see each other face to face for an entire year. He couldn’t find the time to get away at Christmas which made it the loneliest Christmas of my life, sad as that may be. I had so many other siblings, but I felt so alone at the loss of that key _one._

My only other close friend, Dora Tonks, told me to write down my feelings. She said it might help, just writing, letting it all flow, getting it all out on paper. I figured it was a load of crap, but it had been such a shit year that I decided to try it anyway, and I surprised even myself with what I ended up with.

_“I have my heroes, but the one I love the most taught me how to play Quidditch and swing gnomes at just the right speed to lob them over the fence out of the garden._

_I don’t know why I miss him as much as I do, I mean I write to him every night, but I just miss everything about him. I never thought I’d miss sharing a room with him because all we ever did was drive each other crazy, with his snoring keeping me up all night and him complaining he had no privacy._

_I just want him to come home, and I hate never knowing but always wondering where he is, what he’s doing, if he’s safe. I mean he could be lying dead in a tomb, and I wouldn’t know until the letters stopped coming in._

_I feel like I tell him the same stuff every time I write and I know he’s probably sick of me telling him that he needs to come home in one piece, but I just miss him being near. I miss playing Quidditch with him in the orchard, and sneaking down to the lake to fish and swim in the summer.”_

When I had finished writing it, Dora grabbed it from my hands before I could throw it in the fire and I protested like mad because I didn’t want her to read my innermost feelings. She threw up an effortless shield charm and ignored me while I tried to punch it down.

Her eyes scanned my words, and when she was done, she threw it in the fire for me.

I still have not forgotten the words she spoke to me then.

“Charles Weasley, you are in love with your brother.”

I played dumb at first with, “Of course I love him; he’s my brother.”

But Dora, despite being a Hufflepuff, was not a pushover. She didn’t roll-over easily, she shook her head and smirked, “No no, I didn’t say you loved him. I said you were _in_ love with him. There’s a difference.”

I spluttered, “What? He’s my brother! That’s ridiculous, it’s disgusting!”

And I didn’t talk to her for a week, but it wasn’t because she had disgusted me with false accusations, it was because she was right and I was terrified about that. I made things up with her before I went home for the summer, I came clean about a lot of things, about the fact I was gay (which she had already guessed like two years previously) and that I did feel conflicted about my feelings for Bill, and that it scared the living daylights out of me. I’m glad I did because if I hadn’t had her wise words in my head, I don’t know how I would have gotten through the summer.

Bill’s internship finished in July, and he planned to come home briefly while he looked for work in Egypt for the following year. Half of me was excited; the other half of me was terrified. When he walked in, looking very different to the Bill that had left, my heart caught in my throat, and I stood in the background, unable to speak or cry or laugh, like the others.

He was tanned, which shouldn’t have come as a surprise given that he had just spent a year in another hemisphere, but it did somehow. He had an ear piercing and a tattoo snaking up his arm; his hair was longer than it had been when he left and pulled up into a ponytail. He looked different, but it was a good kind of different, the carefree sort.

Mum chastised him, Ginny and Ron thought he looked cool, and Fred and George just wanted gory cursed tomb stories. I slipped away to my bedroom, the bedroom that I supposed Bill would sleep in while he was here this summer. I skipped dinner by telling Mum I had a sore stomach, and I stayed alone in that room until late at night when the door opened quietly.

I wasn’t asleep, but I lay with my back to Bill and my face to the wall, hoping he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

I was wrong; the bed dipped as he sat down on it and he spoke softly, “I know you’re awake Char and I know I upset you by leaving, but I missed you like crazy, please don’t spend this whole summer ignoring me.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat and sat up. I looked at him long and hard, _really_ looked at him but it didn’t seem to phase him. He just looked back, like he was studying the changes in me while I studied the changes in him.

I genuinely do not know what compelled me to do it, call it an inherent instinct, but something in me knew that he wouldn't mind if I did what I wanted to do. I leant forward and closed the gap, capturing his lips in a chaste kiss. I mean he was my brother for crying out loud, we both knew it was beyond wrong, so I wanted to give him every chance to pull away and curse the hell out of me.

But he didn’t, he deepened the kiss, and the tension in his body ebbed away. I remember not knowing what to do at that moment, I had kissed guys in broom closets but never like that, and never _my goddamn brother_. My breath caught as my hands instinctively wrapped themselves around his neck to pull him closer. He chuckled under his breath as he lost his grip and slipped slightly. It was a happy accident, because with him so close we could both feel the other's arousal, we knew that neither of us would reject the other.

That scared Bill at first. I saw it flash in his eyes before he verbalized it with a murmured, “Char, you’re only 17.”

“I don’t care,” I remember muttering back, “It’s not like you’re going to tell anyone, is it?”

The joke was about how wrong it was, but somehow it eased the tension. He chuckled, and I kissed him again, and that was the start of a very enjoyable summer.

It couldn’t last though, midnight memories in our bedroom, stolen moments in the orchard or the lake. That was all it was, and all it could ever be because we were brothers and even in pureblood circles that was not normal. Cousins were fair game, but siblings? No, they were off-limits.

Maybe that was part of the appeal, but I always thought it was more than that and I think Bill did too. At the end of that summer, he got another contract in Egypt, and I had to return for my final year of school, so we had to say goodbye all over again, but it was so much harder that time.

We wrote, all year, just like we had the previous year, and I had hook-ups but never anything serious because nothing came close to the way I felt about Bill, to the way he had made me feel during those moments at midnight back in the summer. I found myself that year, and I finally decided what I wanted to do with my life so towards the end of the year I sent out an open application to anyone looking to hire and train a dragon keeper.

I received a response from a company in Romania who offered me an apprenticeship. The wage was meagre, but there would be accommodation and food at the reserve so I wrote back to accept, knowing fine well my parents would say that I was blowing my potential. After all, Bill was a genius, and he was at least using that to break curses while chasing adventure. I, on the other hand, just wanted to go and play with dragons.

I left school that year and moved out to Romania within a matter of days. I was gone before Bill came home from Egypt, which was the way I had intended it to go. I couldn’t face any more goodbyes, and Bill was the only family member who had approved of my career choice, which would have made it all the worse.

He showed up on the reserve a week later. I had barely gotten my foot in the door. I was getting used to a different country, a different climate, throwing myself into learning everything I could about how the place operated.

I was so tired I hoped that I would be able to go to bed that night and sleep through, without waking up soaked in sweat from the dreams I had been having about Bill and our last summer.

I froze when I walked into my cabin and saw him leaning against the kitchen counter.

“Bill,” I said stupidly.

He crossed his arms and quirked an eyebrow at me, “Did you honestly think I would let my little brother run away to Romania without saying goodbye?”

I cleared my throat and rolled my eyes, “I didn’t run away. I came here for the same reason that you went to Egypt to get out of Britain and do something different for a while.”

“To chase adventure,” Bill said, his eyes sparkling, “And I’m so goddamn proud of you for that Char, but I’m not happy that you ruined the summer that I had planned for us.”

My throat felt incredibly dry, “What’s the use anyway, Bill? We would have had to go our separate ways at the end of it, why make that inevitable goodbye hurt all the more?”

Bill shrugged, “I can take the painful goodbye, the good memories keep me going all year. Which was why I figured, spending the summer at home without you was the dullest thing I could imagine, so I volunteered to help out here this summer.”

My eyes widened, “No, Bill, you can’t stay here. This is a small place…they…they’ll find out.”

“Char, you live in a cabin in the middle of a Romanian forest, and I know all of the most complicated privacy charms you could imagine,” Bill said, his lips quirking into a smirk.

“Nobody would know anything. They would just know you have a very protective older brother who loves you enough to follow you out here and keep an eye on you.”

His eyes caught mine on that last sentence, and our lips were crashing together before I could even form words. He murmured some of those privacy charms in between kisses as he shoved me up against the wall and pressed himself against me, and I knew then that it was going to be the start of a very good summer.

It was a summer filled with dragons, new acquaintances and Bill. By day we would banter and act like typical brothers, we would work hard and go home stinking of sweat, only to shower and put up those very impressive privacy charms of Bill’s and barely sleep. Only to get up and do the same thing again the next day, and neither of us minded at all.

After that summer, we knew things were going to change. We didn’t discuss it, because we rarely did, but we both knew.

I had a stable job in Romania, and Bill loved Egypt, there wouldn’t be apprenticeships or contracted jobs anymore. The reserve had been so impressed with me that summer, they had agreed to keep me on at the end of my apprenticeship, and Bill had been offered a permanent contract with Gringotts, working for their foreign affairs branch in Egypt.

There would be moments, I was sure enough of that, but there would never be another summer.

I turned out to be right, as much as I didn’t want to be. Life took over, and although Bill and I wrote to each other all the time, as we always had, we just didn’t have face to face meetings much. There was the odd Christmas or family dinner that we would both attend, and we sometimes wondered if the others noticed that we disappeared for half an hour every single time the whole family got together. Still, if anyone did know, they never voiced it.

As time went on, it became clear that the threat of a war Bill had picked up on when he left for Egypt, was a genuine threat. Bill took a more active role in it than I did, I kept an eye out, but Voldemort didn’t want ageing, sick dragons from my reserve, so I remained relatively sheltered.

Life just carried on as usual in Romania.

But Bill was contracted by the bank, he worked with goblins and was naturally suspicious. Dumbledore had him doing all sorts of side missions that he couldn’t tell me about, not over letters anyway. But when I started to go over to Egypt, he’d tell me about them as I lay in bed with him.

When the war came, he was sent on a secret mission, and I knew it involved deep undercover, I knew we wouldn’t see each other for months. I knew there was a chance we would never see each other again and I cried when I hugged him late the night before he left.

We both flashed back to the day he left for Egypt when I let go of him and said, “You come back, you hear?”

He promised he would, and he left.

I felt a cold, horrific emptiness with his departure, and I could only wish that he would come home because I didn’t think I could hack that feeling forever.

I couldn’t even write to him, because doing so would blow his cover and give away his location. I had been so used to writing to him that I couldn’t stop writing the letters, even if I could not send them.

So I wrote letters I knew that he would never read. I think the fact I knew they would never find their way to him meant that I wrote from the heart more than I might have otherwise. One letter that I looked back on a few times read like this,

_“I know why you have to do it, why you have to fight. I’m not an idiot, and I know how serious a threat Voldemort is, but I can’t help but be selfish anyway. I think…sometimes freedom makes it hard to live because it takes things from you that you don’t want to give. If it takes you from me Bill…I honestly don’t know how I’ll go on or even if I can. I know I’m not the one who will have to face the anger of this war or lie cold and wounded in my blood. But I know how much you have sacrificed to do that and I admire you for it, you truly are and always have been the only hero that I can count on.”_

Bill did read that letter later in life, and he cried when he did so.

But when I wrote it, it was never intended for his eyes. His mission lasted for six months, and when it came to an end, he found himself wounded in the hospital wing of Hogwarts, following the Battle of the Lightning Struck Tower and Dumbledore’s death.

I came home as fast as I could, and I met him on the school's grounds. I had to hold back tears when I saw him by the oak front doors, sitting in a wheelchair as the sun shone down.

I swallowed a lump in my throat and walked over to him, surveying the scars on his face. He smiled weakly at me, “Hey Char.”

“Hey, Bill,” I said softly.

“So are you…” I trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.

“A werewolf?” Bill finished.

I nodded.

Bill nodded, “More likely than not, yeah.”

I wasn’t sure what to say, so I stayed silent.

“I’m sorry, Char.”

“You’re sorry?” I frowned, “Bill, why on earth are _you_ sorry? _I’m_ sorry, I should have been here. I should have had your back. You shouldn’t have been fighting for me-”

Bill shook his head, “I’m sorry to be a burden, Charlie. I’m sorry you have that you have to push me home.”

I actually laughed weakly and held him tightly as I said, “Hey, this is what brothers are for.”

Bill smiled warmly at me, and despite the war raging all around us, somehow I knew that the two of us would be okay.

**THE END!**   
  



	4. Unsent (Charlie x Hermione)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by the song:  
> Unsent by Alanis Morisette.
> 
> ~ But Hermione’s letter is also full of song lyrics from all of these songs ~  
> Settlin’ by Sugarland  
> Ours by Taylor Swift  
> What I Never Knew I Always Wanted by Carrie Underwood

On the eve of his wedding day, Charlie Weasley had to admit that he did not think he would see the day for a long time. He had left his first love to go chasing after dragons, and he had regretted that decision on and off for several years. Eventually, Dora had moved on though, and although it had hurt, it did Charlie’s heart good to see her so in love with Remus Lupin.

Unfortunately, that relationship had ended in tragedy for Dora.

There had been others of course, but they had never lasted; flings with witches who spent their summer at a dragon reserve for a cheap thrill then went back home, or one-night stands with colleagues. There had never been anyone worth marrying, that much was for sure.

So, Charlie had given up on love for a while. He fell in love with the job, with the dragons he hatched and cared for. He figured that was the closest he would get to real children, that and being Uncle Charlie, the favourite Uncle of almost all of his nieces and nephews.

But then Hermione Granger had come to Romania for a change of career. Charlie could not believe his eyes when he saw her walk through the gates of the reserve, kitted out as if she had been planning this for weeks when in actual fact, it had been a split-second decision. He smiled to himself and waved to her from the window of the office, her eyes lit up, and a genuine smile ghosted across her face as she waved back.

That moment, small and insignificant as it was, had changed his life.

She had spent hours talking to him over whiskey lined coffees that night; it had been freezing. Trust the golden girl to arrive in the middle of a Romanian winter after all. She had gripped her cardigan tightly as she told him all about her change of heart. He had grinned and laughed as she said things like, “So fuck the Ministry and fuck animal cruelty! I can’t make a change by being a paper pusher!”

Charlie had jumped at the chance to show her the ropes. He had taken her on as his apprentice and just as he had expected, she was brilliant at everything he taught her. She didn’t like the cold, but she did love dragons. She didn’t enjoy living in a mud hut, but she loved the Romanian scenery and Charlie prayed that was enough to keep her in Romania. Truthfully, if she left, he thought he would probably go with her.

He had voiced that opinion to Bill one night over a casual floo chat. His older brother had laughed and said, “You’d leave with her? Char, you once told me it would take the love of your life to draw you away from Romania and your dragons.”

Charlie smiled into the fire, “I did say that,” he agreed, “And I would still follow Hermione anywhere.”

Bill’s eyes widened, “Well…wonder what Ronnikons will make of that one.”

“Fuck Ron,” Charlie had said assertively, “He had his chance, and he blew it. She is one of a kind Bill. It took me five minutes to fall in love with her.”

Bill smiled broadly, “Well, let’s hope she feels the same. She does have a bit of a chequered past, you know?”

Charlie scoffed, “She just hasn’t met the right person to settle down with yet.”

Charlie smiled as he recalled the memory. He had taken Hermione out hiking a few days later, and they had ended up sheltering in a cave from the storm that whipped up out of nowhere. That had been the night when it all spilt out. It had been when he had put his heart out on the line for her, and by Godric, he was so glad that he had.

Now here they were, two years later. They had moved home after Hermione had spent a year in Romania. It had been hard for Charlie to adjust at first, but he loved his job at Hogwarts. He was the caretaker and the Care of Magical Creatures Professor, and it was just as rewarding as looking after dragons had been. Hermione was thinking about going back to work, but not for the Ministry.

She had taken a year out after they were forced to come back from Romania. Hermione would have stayed out there forever, but she had fallen pregnant, which came as a pretty big shock because they hadn’t planned it. But coming home had been the right thing to do for all three of them.

They lived in Hogsmeade, just in a little cottage because they didn’t need anything more. It was only the two of them and their one-year-old daughter, Esme.

Molly had insisted that they get married when they told her that Hermione was pregnant, but Hermione had stood her ground. She didn’t want to get married for the sake of the baby or out of pride. She wanted to get married because _she_ wanted to get married. Charlie had just stood by his girlfriend’s side grinning at Bill and trying not to laugh at the expression on his mothers face.

Hermione had won, and just over a year down the line, they were getting married because _they_ wanted to.

Charlie was alone in the house because Hermione wanted to follow all of her family’s traditions. One of which was that the bride and groom couldn’t see each other the night before the wedding. As such, she and Esme were staying with her Mother and Father.

Charlie was too nervous to sleep, so he paced the house, sipping fire whiskey and reminiscing. He was just getting ready to admit defeat and floo Bill.

He wanted to ask him to come over and keep him company (just like Bill had warned him that he would because he would drive himself crazy pacing the house alone the night before such a huge day).

Then something in Hermione’s study caught his eye.

She had locked herself up in there the previous evening, Charlie had figured she was just freaking out about last-minute wedding things, but the door had been left ajar, and the magical fire in the jar that she had been using was still flickering dimly.

Charlie knew he shouldn’t be nosy, but his curiosity got the better of him, so he stepped into the small room. He glanced down at the desk and saw an unsealed envelope that said, in Hermione’s elegant handwriting, “ _What I wish I had said.”_

Charlie frowned at the cryptic nature of the envelope. He felt terrible for invading her privacy, but he slipped the letters out of the envelope and unfolded the first one.

_“Dear Harry,_

_I liked you a lot. I realised you were in a relationship with someone else, and I respected that. The short time we spent together was kind of beautiful in a heart-breaking way. The circumstances were awful, and I still feel guilty about that all the time, but I don’t regret what happened. I’m sorry that I’ve never been able to say that to your face.”_

Charlie’s frown lessened as he realised what these letters seemed to be. They were closure, Hermione’s way of tying up any loose ends that she had been unable to in her previous relationships. He just hoped that there wouldn’t be any skeletons in her past that he didn’t know about, because he had always thought that they had been very open with each other.

He knew that she and Harry had slept together during the war after Ron had run away back home. Charlie had always been on Hermione’s side about that one, even when it was brought up in arguments now. He also knew that what had happened between Hermione and Harry hadn’t just been sex because nothing ever was with Hermione, her heart led her life, not her head despite how intelligent she was. She had loved Harry, perhaps not in a conventional way, but it was still love all the same.

Charlie unfolded the next letter,

_“Dear Ron,_

_We learned so much. I know that we weren’t able to talk for some time, and I understood that because of the circumstances._

_With you and Harry going into Auror training as we started dating and me going back to Hogwarts, it was the long-distance thing that made it so hard. I know that we tried our best, but only seeing each other for a few hours every weekend was just impossible._

_I honestly think that things might have been different if we hadn’t tried to jump into a relationship straight after the war. With everything I went through at Malfoy Manor and everything that you went through when Fred died, it was just such a tumultuous time in our lives._

_But you will always be my friend, and I will always have your back.”_

That letter had been harder to read because this wasn’t just any ex-boyfriend; it was his baby brother. He was aware that the fact he was marrying his little brother's first love was controversial. The press certainly had a field day with it, but Ron and Hermione’s short-lived relationship had been a train wreck, they were both old enough to admit that now even if Ron hadn’t been at the time.

It was sometimes awkward, but Ron gave them his blessing and his anger about the break-up had ebbed away a long time ago.

Charlie knew that a part of Hermione would always love Ron, just as a part of her would always love Harry but he was also confident that she had plenty of love left in her heart for him too. As much as it was true that Hermione had a chequered past, she had only ever been proposed to once, by _him_ and he was the only one who had the honour of fathering a child with her.

He contemplated this as he folded the letter up and opened the next one,

_“Dear Draco,_

_I liked you too much. I used to be attracted to boys who would lie to me and think solely about themselves. Godric knows you were plenty self-destructive for my taste at the time._

_I used to say, the more tragic, the better._

_But the truth is, I am glad that it happened because if it hadn’t, I would always have wondered if there could have been something between us. Now I know that all we were capable of was insults and pretty damn good sex. But either way, whenever I think of the early 2000s, your face comes up with a vengeance like it was yesterday.”_

Charlie could have chuckled at the letter. He knew all about her one-night stand with Draco after her break up with Ron. She had been upset, she had been angry, and one night at a Ministry charity ball, she had gotten drunk. He knew she used to have a crush on him while they were at school, she had wondered if she was the only one feeling the sexual tension, so they had tested it.

In Hermione’s own words, the result of that one night of passion had been the admission that there had _definitely_ been sexual tension there. Still, mind-blowing sex wasn’t enough for her to forgive him for the things he had done, and that it certainly didn’t make him any less of a conceited prick.

Charlie chuckled to himself as he opened the next letter,

_“Dear Neville,_

_I loved you so much. You were nothing but open-hearted and emotionally available which was such a change from everyone that came before you. You were nurturing and consummately there for me, and I am so sorry for the way it ended because you didn’t_

_deserve that._

_Truthfully, I didn’t deserve you. The way that I kept drawing you in and pushing you away was utterly unfair. But I loved how I felt with you; it was the first time since the war that I truly felt safe. I remember how beautiful it was to fall asleep on your couch and not have the nightmares come for the first time in years. I remember that May night when I cried in front of you for the first time, and you let me sob my heart out and miss all of the people I had lost._

_You were the best platform from which to jump beyond myself. You gave me confidence, and you made me believe that I could change the world and I threw it all back in your face because there was some little niggle saying that it wasn’t enough. I still ask myself what was wrong with me? You were perfect, and it took me a few years to realise that the missing piece was that you were too supportive. I had to meet the right person to see that, the person who supported me when he felt that I deserved it but also fought with me until we were both screaming when I was too stubborn to see that I was wrong._

_I guess what this letter is saying is that I’m sorry.”_

Charlie smiled at the ending of the letter, but this one had hit home the most. Then again, Hermione had flings with Harry and Draco, and she had dated Ron for a few months.

However, she had been with Neville for almost two years. They had been living together, Neville had talked to Harry about proposing to her. It had been her most serious relationship before him, so he understood why it was so fresh and why she had so many regrets. He had felt the same about Dora for a long time after he chose Romania over her.

He had known less about her relationship with Neville than he had about her other ‘lovers’, but he figured that made sense. They had been together for a long time; there was no way that Hermione had told him everything.

All the same, despite her regrets, the letter didn’t worry Charlie because she had practically signed it off with, “You were perfect, you just weren’t Charlie Weasley”.

Charlie folded the letter up and placed it back in the envelope. Then he opened the final one,

_“Dear Theo,_

_I won’t lie; you rocked my world. You had a charismatic way about you with the women, and I would have been stupid not to notice that. You sucked me in when I was very down, and you got me seriously thinking about spirituality. If it hadn’t been for you, I don’t think my opinions on Divination and other spiritual subjects would have been challenged, but I’m glad that they were._

_You wouldn’t let me get away with kicking my own arse either, and I needed that at the time, but I could never really feel relaxed or looked out for around you because of the way you were with other women. That was what stopped us from going any further than we did and it was too bad because I think we could have had much more fun.”_

Charlie reeled from the final letter a little because it was the only one that came as a shock to him. He _knew_ she had had a stupid fling after she broke up with Neville. She had been feeling awful for breaking such a nice guys heart - even their mutual friends had been giving her a hard time for it - and there had been this guy who made her feel like herself again.

That was all she had ever told Charlie. He figured that he had never heard a name because the person wasn’t anyone significant enough to mention. However, the fact that it had been Theodore Nott, his _deputy_ at the dragon reserve in Romania came as a huge shock, especially when Hermione had been so open about everyone else.

He sighed, quite unsure how to feel about that, as he put the letter back in the envelope. It was only then that he noticed another letter in a sealed envelope which sat beneath and simply said,

_“Charlie.”_

Charlie picked the letter up and tore it open, hoping that it would contain answers.

_“Dear Charlie,_

_You changed my life._

_Before you, I lived in Groundhog Day (You get that reference now since I dragged you through the film, right?). My life was just monotonous. I would get up, go to work, wait in line for an elevator, sit at my desk and be a boring paper pusher. I sat there, thinking that there had to be something more than that. I had just broken up with Neville, I was miserable, and I felt like I was going to feel like that for the rest of my life because no man ever seemed to be good enough for me._

_Then I met Theo. He came into the department one day talking about a dragon he had saved. I was upset, and he was charming, you can guess how it played out from there. I never told you, and I’m sorry about that. You two are good friends, and I didn’t want to compromise that while we were all working in Romania together then I was pregnant and there was just never a good time to spit it out, but I want to make sure we go into marriage with all of our secrets out in the open._

_Anyway, one night I was lying in bed with Theo, and I told him how I felt about my work and my life, and he said, “Fuck it all then, fuck them all. Do what you want to do. There’s a whole dragon reserve in Romania that would be blessed to have you.” So the next day, I strode into my bosses office and gave him my notice, and I packed to go to Romania. I decided to take my chances because there was a chance I might find what I was looking for there._

_I had no idea that what I was looking for was you, Charlie Weasley, but it was. I had spent the last five years going out with Mr Right Now, not Mr Forever. I had all but given up on love because it always ended the same way, with the words “Maybe we would be better as friends?” or “Maybe we should have just stayed friends?” or in Draco’s case, “Fuck off Malfoy, you weren’t even that good a shag.”_

Charlie had to crack a smile at that part; he hated Draco Malfoy.

_“I had been leaving it up to fate, but Theo made me realise that it was my life to make. I decided I wouldn’t settle again, and I didn’t want just to get by. I was tired of shooting too low, so I raised the bar high, enough wasn’t enough anymore. I would not settle for anything less than the perfect man._

_Then I walked into that dragon reserve and completely didn’t see Theo waving at me from the yard, because all I saw was you in that window. Then we spent the night talking about anything and everything, and I started to fall so hard, right then and there._

_If someone had asked me who I thought my ‘equal’ was, I would never have said you before I came to Romania and got to know you. But you are my equal Charlie. You can match me in intelligence, hell sometimes you can actually beat me. You love magical creatures as much as I do, you share my beliefs and most of my opinions, but you aren’t afraid to challenge me when I’m wrong. When you think I’m right, you’ll fight my corner passionately, and I love that about you. You’re all in, all the time, your heart is always on the line. You trust me enough not to break it, and that has always felt like a privilege._

_You made me stop caring about what people thought about me, and about us. Ever since we showed up at the Burrow together, there has always been someone who disapproves of us. Whether it was Ron or Bill for not thinking that I was good enough for you, there was always someone. You always said that it wasn’t up to them to speculate if it was wrong, you would tell me not to worry about what anyone thought. You would say, “To hell with the age gap, and you’re the smartest witch of your age, you can make your own decisions”. It took me a while to see that you were right, and I’m sorry about that. I see it now._

_I decided a long time ago to fight their doubts and give you faith which was why I didn’t freak out when I found out that I was pregnant with Esme, even though I knew you were expecting me to. From the moment we came home, I’ve ignored the snide remarks from my father about your tattoo’s and my mother's remarks that you should get a real job, because like you once told me, people throw rocks at things that shine, and life makes love look hard. The stakes are high, the waters are rough, but this love is ours, and it is perfect._

_So I cannot wait for us to be a proper family, for Esme and I to have the same surname, to become your wife. Despite everyone’s doubts, my choice has always been you, and it always will be._

_All my love,_

_Hermione.”_

Charlie didn’t even care that he was crying when he reached the end of the letter. Of course, Hermione would know that he was nervous, that he would be freaking out and that he would be too proud to floo Bill. So, she had given him something to occupy himself, something to ease his worries.

By Godric, that girl was too good for him. He had thought it on the night she walked into the reserve, and every day since.

Charlie hastily wiped his tears away and sat down behind the desk. He grabbed a piece of parchment and dipped an old quill into the inkpot that sat precariously on the edge of the desk. If she was going to drop an emotional bomb on him, then it was only fair that he returned it.

* * *

Hermione was too nervous to sleep that night. She knew that she needed to try because she would be in a real state the following morning if she had been up all night, but she was just a bundle of nerves.

Her parents had already gone to bed, so she had gone to her room too. That in itself was a surreal experience, Hermione had lived on her own from the moment she graduated Hogwarts after going back to school to redo her final year.

Yet, here she was, back in her childhood bedroom with her daughter asleep in a travel cot at the end of the bed. Her mother cleaned the room, but she had left it untouched. There was still a corkboard above the dresser adorned with pictures of herself, Harry and Ron throughout their years at school. There was still a box underneath the bed which contained diaries from her teenage years; she could imagine the laugh that Charlie would get out of them.

A smile slipped onto her face at the thought of Charlie. She wondered if he would have found the letters yet. She had left the door ajar and the light flickering, assuming he wouldn’t be able to resist peeking. Curiosity would be the death of Charlie Weasley one day. Her eyes flicked towards the wardrobe where her wedding dress hung; it made butterflies flutter rather violently in her stomach.

It wasn’t that she had any second thoughts about marrying Charlie; it was just that she was nervous about standing up in front of everyone and getting married. Hermione wasn’t the most public person at the best of times, but she understood that this was an important moment. So as much as she wanted just to take Esme and a couple of witnesses and elope, she couldn’t.

Esme sighed softly and shifted in her sleep. Hermione smiled down at the little girl; she slept soundly in a pink Peter Rabbit sleeping bag that Hermione’s mother had knitted for her, and she clung tightly onto a comforter that Molly had crafted for her. Her curly brown locks were damp from sweat, and her baby blue eyes fluttered as she dreamed.

Until Hermione walked into the dragon reserve that night, she thought she would be happy independently. She couldn’t picture herself dressing in white and walking down the aisle until she fell in love with Charlie.

She didn’t think of herself as a maternal person either. She had never pictured herself singing lullabies in a rocking chair in the middle of the night. But then she had found out that she was pregnant and all she could envision was herself sitting in the quiet, in a dark room with a baby who was stealing her heart with her Daddy’s eyes.

Until she held Esme, she didn’t realise that she was what she had always wanted.

When Hermione started that letter to Charlie off with, “You changed my life”, she wasn’t melodramatic, she truly meant it.

She jumped and was drawn away from her thoughts by a quiet tapping sound on the window. Hermione frowned, who would be owling so late at night? She worried that something terrible might have happened and immediately rolled up the blinds. She opened the window, and Charlie’s tawny owl dropped a letter in then flew off again.

Hermione smiled when she looked down at the envelope. All it said was, “Hermione” in Charlie’s untidy scrawl. She opened the envelope and carefully took the letter out,

_“Hermione,_

_You changed my life too, you know? This whole thing has never been one-sided. I understand why you didn’t tell me about you and Theo, and I’m more pissed at him than you if I’m honest, but it’s not a big deal anyway because he lost out. I’m the lucky one in this scenario because at this time tomorrow, I’ll be able to call you my wife._

_Before you walked into the dragon reserve that night, I had given up on love. Dora was my first love, and I had left her to “play with dragons” as Mum regularly reminded me. Her death hit me like a hurricane, even though I knew she had long since moved on by then. I figured love maybe wasn’t something that was going to happen for me. I especially thought that kids wouldn’t happen, so I learned how to be happy with the dragons and my nieces and nephews. You know, Bill hit the nail on the head one time he was visiting, he said that I seemed to have gotten content with loneliness._

_But then you walked into the reserve, and it was like my heart was kick-started. I felt things that I hadn’t felt for a long time and that first night…I didn’t want to stop talking to you. I could have finished that bottle of whiskey and gone through another pot of coffee. I could have talked until the dawn with you because you were just such a beautiful enigma to me._

_I was desperate to keep you in Romania because I couldn’t bear for you to leave after you had come in and lit up my life like that. When you took to it and fell in love with it as much as I did…well, I fell in love with you along the way._

_I’ve never told you this story, but not long after you came to Romania, I was talking to Bill. I said that I couldn’t handle you leaving, I said that I would follow you home if you did. He scoffed and reminded me that I had once said it would take the love of my life to drag me away from Romania. I smiled and said, I know. That was how quickly I fell for you._

_When we got stranded in that snowstorm…that was the best thing that had ever happened to me. There’s a little part of me that thinks that Dora had a say in it, I can see her up there, scheming and giggling, making sure I found someone who could make me as unbelievably happy as she did. I know you sometimes feel second best because she was my first love, but you are perfect for me in more ways than she ever was. You love magical creatures, and you can’t decide if a perfect weekend is one spent reading by the fire or one spent exploring and discovering new things._

_The days we spent boiling alive, out in the sun till our skin was burning, hunting for rare dragons eggs, and the nights we spent in the freezing cold, huddling for warmth while we waited to release a sick dragon we had reared, are some of my fondest memories of our time in Romania. But the nights we spend by the fire, engrossed in books while our daughter sleeps soundly in the room next door, are my fondest memories since we came home._

_You came into my life like a whirlwind and changed everything, and I am so grateful to you for that. But more so, I am beyond thankful for the greatest gift you ever gave me; Esme. I know she wasn’t planned and you’re right, I did expect you to freak out when you fell pregnant, but it just felt right despite the shock._

_I’m sorry that I was impossible when we first came home, I realise that must have been hard for you to deal with on top of the morning sickness and the hormones. But thank you for sticking by me and helping me adjust because coming home to raise Esme here was the best decision we ever made. I had grown used to the fact I wouldn’t have children, so I feel blessed every time I look at that perfect little girl, the spitting image of her beautiful mother._

_And thank you for agreeing to marry me. I know you wanted to do it on your terms, not my mothers and I love you for standing your ground on that one. Godric knows that sometimes someone has to stand up to her, the force of nature that she is. Thank you for not caring what anyone says about us and thank you for trusting me with your heart. It is an honour that I never intend to take for granted._

_All my love,_

_Charlie._

_P.S: If you get to reduce me to an emotional wreck the night before our wedding, it’s only fair that I get to return the favour.”_

Hermione laughed tearfully at the P.S. She wiped her eyes, Charlie had indeed reduced her to an emotional wreck. Charlie wore his heart on his sleeve, and it was rare that Hermione couldn’t tell what he was thinking or how he was feeling, but he didn’t vocalise that very often. Like most men, he didn’t like talking about his feelings, and he wasn’t the most eloquent when he did either.

She folded the letter carefully and pinned it up on her corkboard; she would keep it along with the other letters that meant something to her, the ones that she couldn’t quite bear to throw away.

Esme moaned and shifted in her sleep once more, and all of a sudden, the nerves seemed to have eased. Hermione yawned and realised for the first time, quite how tired she was. She had to chuckle, even though they were miles apart, Charlie had managed to calm her down as only he could.

“Your Daddy is one clever man Esme,” Hermione said softly as she lay down in bed and pulled the duvet over her. She let her eyes drift shut and mumbled, “Thank Godric I made that spontaneous decision to go to Romania.”

She smiled at the thought and fell asleep, thinking about the bitterly cold night she had walked through those gates and caught those mesmerising blue eyes smiling kindly down at her.

** THE END! **


End file.
